NREL’s Dan Arvizu Headlines WREF 2012 Speaker List

Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will address the opening plenary session for the World Renewable Energy Forum, coming to Denver May 13 to 17, 2012. Dennis Dimick, executive editor of the National Geographic, will speak at the annual banquet of the American Solar Energy Society.

Photo Credit: NREL

Dan Arvizu, Ph.D., has been the director and chief executive of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory since 2005. NREL, in Golden, Colo., began operations in 1977 and is the DOE’s primary laboratory for energy-efficiency and renewable energy research and development. He previously served as chief technology officer with CH2M HILL, and before that at AT&T Bell Telephone Labs and Sandia National Laboratories. Arvizu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and a Master of Science degree and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Dennis Dimick is executive editor for the environment at National Geographic magazine.

For the first time, the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Conference will be held under the same roof with the biennial World Renewable Energy Congress. The combined event is WREF 2012. The conference will draw prominent speakers and technical presentations from universities, renewable energy laboratories, installations and industries around the world. WREF 2012 will examine how renewable energy technologies address the world’s economic, environmental and security challenges at every scale, from off-grid villages to gigawatt power plants.

WREF 2012 is presented by the American Solar Energy Society, the World Renewable Energy Network, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and the International Solar Energy Society. Conference program chair is Chuck Kutscher, Ph.D., principal engineer and group manager of NREL’s Thermal Systems Group. Co-chairs are Professor Ali Sayigh of the World Renewable Energy Congress and Susan Greene, president of ASES.